“Simple Can Be Harder Than Complex”

I found myself in a meeting on friday struggling with colleagues on how to integrate our impactful work in community from the time a child is born all the way until he or she leaves for high school ready.  My head hurt at the end from struggling to unbundle the complexities.  Later I thought about the quote above from Steve Jobs.

Getting to simple can be one of the most difficult journeys taken.  As Job’s points out, getting your ‘thinking clean’ is hard work.  But if it isn’t a journey taken, we are often left paralyzed because of the ceiling of complexity: no one can get above the ceiling to see and understand.  A question that I find helpful when you feel stuck and face something that seems too tall and complex is: “What is the simplest thing I can do that would have the biggest impact?”